jeff eaton

Today's my first full day back home after a fabulous week in Barcelona with the Lullabot crew and other crazy Drupal-heads. It's going to be tough writing a good recap, because a lot of my excitement about the conference revolves around crossed paths and conversations, great ideas that were born and plans that were forged.

I'll be writing a lot more in the coming day or so about some proposals for Drupal 7, and how we can leverage the work in Drupal 6 effectively. But for now, I'm relaxing and getting over jetlag and reflecting on how much I enjoyed Barcelona, how much I am glad to be back home with my wife, and how awesome it is working with a team of people that I can honestly call my friends. It rocks.

One of the stand-out memories of the past week was a great dinner with Steven Wittens of Bryght, Allie Micka of Advantage Labs, and the dynamic duo of CCK development, Karen Stephenson and Yves Chedemois. Plan to meet up with a larger group of Drupal folks stumbled, and we ended up sharing awesome paella and sangria while talking about code, plans for the future, shared stories, and other fun. It was great to hang out and catch up with them as peers and just-plain-cool-people, under fireworks in the pleasant Mediterranean air.

The FormAPI 3 presentation went better than I expected -- I was slotted in the main room, which I wasn't expecting at all, so there were odd moments of disorientation as I manned the "panel discussion table" solo. All turned out well, though, and I think the important bits got through. I'm tinkering around with a presentaiton-sharing site to post the slides; hopefully it will work.

Also? We found a crepe bar. The crepe artiste named Elmer made us awesome crepes with things like lime chocolate, and talked smack about George W. Bush. He's from Holland and -- in case this wasn't emphasized enough -- made really awesome crepes.

Quite a few suspicious strays are milling around in the gardens. They are TOO CUTE FOR WORDS.

So after a crazy week or two, the Lullabots and I are heading to the Barcelona Drupalcon. We're looking forward to hanging out, geeking, and meeting up with the rest of the Drupal community. It's my first trip outside the country -- Catherine's bopped around Europe before but I'll be seeing things for the first time. Hopefully, I'll get a chance to play with the camera and I'll flickr my brains out. Woo!

With Drupal 6 entering beta now, momentum in the community is picking up even more. It'll be very interesting to see what new ideas and directions come out of the conference.

To those who've already arrived, see you in 15 hours!